The tree-hugging elves, invading undead, and mechanically-minded dwarves are all painfully derivative. Azeroth - sorry Aquador - is a land occupied by four factions. A couple of episodes into the 16-mission campaign and another major influence becomes glaringly obvious. The fabulous introductory battle cinematic is Blizzard quality, but so strongly reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings films that you have to wonder whether HoAE wasn't originally conceived as a licensed project. The plot and race compositions are areas where more originality certainly wouldn't have gone amiss. The borrowing is sometimes embarrassingly brazen, but the Ukrainians add just about enough of their own ideas to this RTS-RPG centaur to justify its existence. Though there are echoes of the studio's earlier work in the high headcount armies and modelling of broken morale, the design borrows as much from Warcraft 3 and Diablo as it does from Age of Empires 2 (Cossacks' primary inspiration). If Dimitry had only hung onto his sanity for a day or two more he would have discovered that Heroes of Annihilated Empires is actually quite a departure for GSC. When his boss came over with concept art for a Dwarven musket trooper, Dimitry rushed screaming from the office straight into the path of a passing tram. He waited excitedly for his first job on the new project. His spirits soared, his imagination gamboled like a wild Don pony. Then in the summer of 2005 he heard the wonderful news that the company were finally ditching historical strategy in favour of fantasy. the monotony drove him to the brink of madness.
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French chasseurs for Cossacks: European Wars, Swiss harquebusiers for Cossacks: Back to War, British redcoats for American Conquest, Dutch musketeers for American Conquest: Fight Back, Mexican cazadores for American Conquest: Divided Nation, French chasseurs (again) for Cossacks 2.
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For five solid years he did nothing but draw men with muskets. He was a unit artist in the RTS department of Ukrainian developer GSC Game World.